Wealth Management | Group Retirement/401(k) Services

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

– Albert Einstein

Our mission is to create successful retirement plan outcomes for both employees and employers.

Complete transparency and full disclosure are hallmarks of our firm. Our consultants are fiduciaries without caveat or exception. We provide a team of dedicated specialists devoted to the areas of Investment Research and Portfolio Construction, Fiduciary Governance and ERISA Compliance, Fee Benchmarking and Provider Searches, Plan Design and Employee Education and Advice.

Guy Wilson, QPS, QPFC

Guy Wilson leads the 401(k) team and has been working as a 401(k) specialist for nearly 20 years. He is Qualified Plan Specialist, a Qualified Plan Financial Consultant (QPFC), and an active member of National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA). He attends quarterly calls with ERISA attorneys, Department of Labor (D.O.L.), and policy experts to keep on top of the constantly shifting 401(k) landscape. He also attends a variety of annual 401(k) conferences to make sure that the team is bringing the best possible advice to our clients.

A team you can trust.

The Franklin Group’s 401(k) team has become one of the few “go-to” 401k teams within Equitable. We have been a member of the Retirement Plan Advisory Group (RPAG) since 2007. RPAG provides premier technology, systems, training, and resources to over 2,000 members that serve over 100,000 plan sponsors and more than $1 Trillion in assets (as of January 31, 2023). Through our membership with RPAG, we are uniquely structured to support the spectrum of defined contribution (DC) retirement plans.

To plan participants, we owe the Duty of Loyalty. As named plan fiduciaries we must act solely in the interest of the plan participants, their beneficiaries, and alternate payees. In doing so, we must: carry out duties prudently, diversify plan assets, confirm they pay only fair and reasonable expenses, and always follow a prudent process.

Employer Services & Deliverables

Annual Fee Benchmarking of investment, record keeping, TPA, and advisory fees.
Annual Fiduciary Plan Review – Overall plan health review through key plan metrics.
Target Date Fund Analysis – Best-fit and glide path analysis related to both risk tolerance and time-horizon.
RFP - Live “shop the market” every 4 years as recommended by the DOL.
Collective Investment Trusts (CIT) – Special pricing on CITs to lower investment cost below institutional funds.
Fiduciary Briefcase – A systematic documentation of the fiduciary governance process and all relevant plan documents.

Employee Financial Education & Wellness

Franklin Group provides both group and one-on-one education sessions. We find that employees frequently understand what they’re supposed to do but need guidance regarding how to get there. When this is the case, we will customize our group and one-on-one sessions to focus on any of the following items:

Enrollment support
Plan benefit reviews
Asset, investment lineup, and fund allocations reviews
Rollover assistance
Budgeting
Future balance and income projections/Retirement income planning
Distribution planning

5 Most Commonly Asked Questions by Plan Participants:

“When can I retire?”

“How can I protect what I already have for retirement?”

“How much will I need to retire?

"How do I create a monthly “paycheck” in retirement?"

“Am I going to run out of money in retirement?”

What level of service do you and your employees deserve?

Review this checklist of services to see where your existing advisor falls short. If all the boxes are not checked, let’s have a conversation.

It all starts with a conversation.